


Burned Over

by intoblivion



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Anal Sex, Blasphemy, Blow Jobs, Dirty Talk, Exhibitionism, Frottage, Light Dom/sub, M/M, Preacher!Louis, Religious Ecstasy, Religious Fanaticism, Second Great Awakening AU, very mild breath play
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-16
Updated: 2014-08-16
Packaged: 2018-02-13 02:27:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2133627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intoblivion/pseuds/intoblivion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The year is 1830: Andrew Jackson is president, religious revivalism is going strong, and Harry and Louis are setting out in the middle of it all to search for something More.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burned Over

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in the 1830s, but they don't actually talk or act super historically accurately........just go with it.
> 
> Here are some relevant [works](http://blog.metmuseum.org/americanstories/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/swimming_324.jpg) of [art](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/1839-meth.jpg) to help give you an idea of the setting.
> 
> Also: endless thank you's to Wade and Molly for helping me so much with this-- for reading it over, giving suggestions, and holding my hand through it all. Without them this probably would still be just a lonely paragraph.

 

\--------------------------

 

 

“What’s the matter, you too scared to jump in?”

Louis strode stark naked over to the boy who was stuck standing still as a statue on the edge of the outcropping of rock above the river. The boy was also naked, but smaller and shivering a bit, looking somewhat shell-shocked as his pale white toes flexed against the stone, gripping the ground for dear life. When he made no move to answer, Louis repeated himself.

“Well? What’re you waiting for?”

“‘M not scared.” He looked down at the other boys who were already splashing in the river below, and then back up at Louis, meeting his eyes for the first time with a cow-like stare and slow blink that should have been dull or infuriating, but only endeared Louis more to this weird little tadpole standing in front of him. Louis rolled his eyes in exasperation anyways.

“Alright fine, you’re not scared. Whatever. Suit yourself. So how come you’re not in the water yet?”

“I mean....” The boy shrugged and mumbled the beginning of an explanation.    
Well. Apparently he was not only a cow-eyed scaredy-cat but also had a problem with speaking coherently. Fantastic. Louis was only ten but he sure didn’t suffer fools kindly. Which is exactly why he went over to the boy and put his arm around his shoulders. Out of pure annoyance. Surely.

“Look Curly. Here’s the thing about being a wuss: it’s dumb. Number one, it’s a waste of time. Number two, it prevents you from having any fun, which is frankly against all of my rules. So.”

Louis moved them so they were standing at the very edge of the rock. He could feel the younger boy tense underneath his hands. For some reason--probably stemming from his utter annoyance and frustration with this fish-mouthed bean pole--Louis leaned in and gave his shoulders a reassuring squeeze as he said,  
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”

Curly relaxed his shoulders a bit at that and Louis plowed on.

“Ok look. All the reasons you could be afraid--” Curly looked up and scowled a bit “not to say that you are--but...all the reasons are dumb. Because here. Say you’re afraid of heights. Jumping off of them just means you don’t have to be up high anymore!” Curly’s frown deepened. 

“Ok. Or. Say you’re afraid it’s too cold. We’re both already starkers, so our bits are already at the mercy of nature no matter what. Or--if you’re afraid of hitting the rocks, you won’t. Just aim for where the others landed. Or if you think you’ll drown you really must be dumber than I thought, because obviously none of us would let you. So that’s that fear outta the question. But ok. If you’re afraid of water snakes maybe--which you shouldn’t be--you can just pee in the water and they won’t come near you! Easy.  Or...” Louis shrugged and rattled off more and more absurd fears and simple solutions as Curly’s frown lessened and his sheepish smile grew.  
“...so, that’s what I’m saying. It’s just stupid to be afraid. S’no reason to be!”  
Curly still looked hesitant, and bit his lip before opening his mouth again.  
“But....”  
“Nope. There will be no butts up here but your bare buns and mine, thank you very much. Now how old are you, Curly?”  
“Harry.”  
“That’s not a number.” Louis had gotten himself stuck at the top of a rock with a halfwit. Honestly.  
“No. M’ _name ___’s Harry. I’m eight.”  
“Oh. Well then.” Maybe not a halfwit, but still a dough-faced simpleton.  
The only logical course of action was obviously for Louis to offer his hand, palm up, so Harry could take it in his. Someone had to, he supposed.  
“Alright Harold. So you’re eight years old. You’ve lived some good life. Not as much as _I’ve ___lived at Ten, but you’ll get there. The point is, you’ve clearly gone swimming before, and you’ll clearly go again, so there’s no point in turning into an old man up here worrying about getting wet!”  
Harry looked at his feet, then down at the water, then back up at Louis’ face.  
“Well...I did dip my feet in earlier....”  
Louis rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, “Well bloody hell! If you’re gonna get your feet wet, you might as well go all in!”  
Harry gave a small smile and swung their arms back and forth a few times before asking quietly but confidently,  
“Together?”  
Louis’ chest constricted and expanded all at once and he swallowed hard to tamp it down, squeezing Harry’s hand and replying,

__“Yeah, together.”_ _

__Their hands stayed connected even after they hit the water. Falling and plunging and coming back up for air--their fingers stayed tethered to each other through it all. It never crossed either of their minds to let go._ _

_

\--------------------------

_

__

__\--- _[10 years later] ___\---_ _

__  
__  
“Oi! Lazy bones! The sun’s been up for an age already and you’re still snoring!” Louis kicked the sleeping sack of Harry-shaped bones on the ground and the lump of limbs grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like “sod off”.  
“Harold I won’t tell you again, if you don’t want me to eat all the breakfast you’d better get up! We’ve got to make it to the next town before dinner and at this rate we won’t even make it out of this valley before I go grey. So--get! up!” Harry grumbled and rolled over as he heaved into a gargantuan stretch.  
“G’morning” Harry rasped out as he looked up at Louis with a smile that shouldn’t have been aimed at someone who’d just been kicking you in the ribs.  
“Morning, love.”  
Harry sat up and rubbed his eyes before frowning with consideration. “C’n I’ve a kiss? Think I need a kiss before I can get up properly...”  
“Ugh. Fine, you great big toddler.” Louis leaned down and met Harry’s upturned lips in a kiss, pulling back to smile at him softly in the morning light. Harry pouted. “More? Please?”  
Louis scowled and took Harry’s head in his two hands. He gave him one look of exasperated fondness before he leaned down and peppered kisses all over his petulant sleep-puffy face.  
“Heeyyyyy!” Harry smiled up at Louis and slowly ran his hand through his messed-up hair to sweep it back from where Louis had just ruffled it into his face.  
“Hay is for horses, Harold. Now giddy-up or I’ll sell you for glue.”

___Harry frowned as he straightened up and went about his morning routine while he grumbled unintelligible mutterings that sounded like something having to do with hooves and asses._ _ _

____They had set up camp in a nice little pocket of woods off of the river and Harry ambled over to the edge of the trees to relieve himself. He scratched his bare belly as he pissed, and when his thick stream kept going longer than usual, Louis called over, “Sheesh we should enter you in the races if you’re gonna piss like a horse too, H”  
Harry laughed as he shook himself off and tucked his soft dick back into his underclothes. He came back over to where Louis was hunched over the small campfire and draped his arms around him with a smirking smile.  
“If you’re trying to say I have a cock like a horse Lou, you could have just said so.”  
“Ugh, come off it!”  
“You love it.”  
“Lies. Now I know how much you’d love to waltz into the next county in nothing but your skin, but we can’t do that this time, so for the love of God, _please ___get ready.”  
“Ok, ok, I’m gettin, I’m gettin! Right away, _Reverend ___”  
“None of that!” he shouted at Harry’s cackling back, reaching back to slap his retreating ass, smiling despite himself.  
Harry shuffled over to get dressed and start packing up camp while simultaneously trying to shove food in his face. 

________Since they started out on the road two years ago they had mostly gotten things down to a pretty good routine. In the beginning, things were admittedly pretty pathetic. The son of high-society upper-crust citizens, Harry had been all soft palms and pale skin. His eagerness to make things work and do well far outweighed his strength and actual abilities, so for everything he tried to do, he would stuff up two other things along the way. Louis was a bit more road-ready than Harry, what with being the bastard son of the local midwife, but none of his experience had quite prepared him for the reality of going on the road. For his part, Louis’ pride and mulishness got them into just as much trouble as any of Harry’s incompetence had. But between the two of them they somehow made it work.  
  
He and Harry had grown up practically elbow-to-elbow, but while Harry went home to a feather mattress, Louis went home to a house full of screaming sisters and a constant stream of women in various stages of gestation. That didn’t keep him from setting his sights on the horizon, though. Louis’ mother was always telling him he was too big for this world--which sometimes meant he was taking up too much space in their small house, but most of the time meant she knew he was meant for greater things than a stable boy or courier. He shone with it--the hum of something more singing constantly just under his veins.  
  
As a boy he would hike up the hill to Harry’s house through the snow after work and school so they could sit together in front of the fire and plan. Louis would whisper excitedly about the great Canal they were building across the state, about change and adventure and what lay beyond. Harry would listen with wide shining eyes and contribute his low syrup-slow snippets of news he had overheard his mother discussing during dinner. They would talk about Andrew Jackson, the Great Commoner, and dream of making speeches to the masses, of becoming Something Great. Sometimes when Louis worked in the stables, Harry would trudge over and lay in the hay loft listening to him putter around, cooing to the animals. Sometimes they would sing a little tune, and sometimes they wouldn’t say anything at all. Just being near each other was enough. 

________It happened just like that. Their closer-than-average friendship slipped into something more with an unassuming ease and acceptance of this new development that passed with no great ceremony, no line in the sand. One moment it was Harry with straw stuck in his curls looking over at Louis, both of them breathing hard with the efforts of their play-fight--the next it was crinkled eyes and soft lips pressing together with a naturalness that felt like coming home. They were all breathless laughter and tentative touches: palms over cheeks, fingers over ribs, head over heels--rolling through hay with the slow-blinking eyes of barnyard animals as the only witnesses to the beginning of what had been building slowly, so long in coming.  
  
But the horses and cows couldn’t be the only ones who knew for long. All it took was one misstep: some admittedly very heavy petting in Harry’s father’s study when he was supposed to be out, Louis’ hand down Harry’s britches, Harry’s hands tangled in Louis’ hair, and their two mouths linked incriminatingly together. Mr. Styles--a well-meaning, well-rounded, reserved old man--coughed twice and turned around as he informed Louis it might be best if he took his things and left. 

_____A respected barrister in the county, Harry’s father was reasonable, but not without reservations. Harry was sixteen and should be courting the girls in the village if he wanted to secure himself a good marriage. Or at the very least he should be focusing on his studies so that he wouldn’t be too tragically behind the other lads in law school. Harry bore it all with a steely determination fed by fervent whispers at night, dreams of more, and the knowledge that what he had was more than his father could ever want for him._ _ _ _ _

_____He and Louis left together a year later after the first thaw. Their sights set southwest to where there were murmurs of new movements, of communities finally beginning to see the light of the 19th century.  
Louis left knowing his mother and sisters would be provided for by her new husband. Harry left knowing that what lay ahead of them would be greater than anything that came before. _ _ _ _ _

______

____

\--------------------------

____

____ _ _

________Two years and ten towns later, they had learned and grown more than either of them ever thought possible. They depended on the kindness of people they met along the way and very quickly learned to make the village churches their first stop in every new place. The cold months they spent with preachers who sheltered and fed them in exchange for service to the church and little bits of labor around their land. The turning point came during one November night when the pastor they were staying with invited them to what he called “a Meeting” down at the Old Mill.  
  
Harry and Louis went not knowing what to expect and as they sat beneath the eaves on the hastily hewn-together wooden pews, they could feel a strange energy building in the drafty room as more and more people filled the seats around them. Not two minutes into the gathering each of them could feel every hair on their bodies standing on end, their skin prickling with static electricity and something else entirely. It felt like something was tugging at the strings that held them together, and as the beginning notes of the first Come to Jesus Hymn started up, they looked at each other and their eyes widened. This was something else entirely.  
  
This wasn’t music that was read from a book and sung in nasally reticence between the pews. This was music that pulled you in and seemed to be pushed up out of the bellies of those singing. The atmosphere was literally _moving_ as people swayed and seemed to be drawn forward and upwards with the pull of the word. 

_____Louis watched the pastor speak with shining eyes, tracked his flailing movements with a concentrated stillness Harry had never seen him maintain this long before. Louis drank in every dramatic pause, absorbed every look, every lilt of speech as though transfixed. The pastor summoned sinful souls to be cleansed, and he sang out from the front of the room with a passion that came from what seemed to be the savior himself. The whole room vibrated with energy and the people lifted their palms and waved their arms and everything shone with the captured potential of seventy-odd souls looking to be saved._ _ _ _ _

__________Louis was on the edge of his seat with the excitement of it. Harry looked back around at the people surrounding them, moving as one, some eyes pointed toward heaven while some locked on the outstretched arms of the pastor promising salvation to those who seek it. He felt something zing down his spine and squirmed in his seat as he began to harden in his pants. He flushed and looked down, biting his lip and closing his eyes in apparent prayer, willing his prick to go down before communion--just the thought of taking the body of Christ in his mouth with a hard-on making him sweat in anticipation. Next to him Louis’ fingers gripped the wood beneath them, knuckles whitening while his mouth moved noiselessly and his eyes followed the preacher with a hawk-like sharpness. The stillness of his body was belied only by the hectic flush on his cheeks that Harry recognized as what could only be one thing: pure and overwhelming want.  
  
The meeting went on into the night as the pastor laid hands on the souls that offered themselves up to God, and the people gathered rose and fell with the waves of energy that ebbed and flowed with the quiet and crescendo that seemed to alternate in a way that kept you constantly waiting for the other foot to fall.  
Everything ended on a note of hope and a call for change that could only be sustained with the help of the congregation.  
  
Prayer. Evangelism. Revival. Hope.  
  
They broke with a prayer and concluded with an impressive array of food offered by the people who had come prepared.  
  


\--------------------------

  


__________That night, laying side by side, still vibrating with the residual energy from earlier, Louis whispered into the darkness “Harry? You still awake?"  
“Yeah. Yeah, Lou.”  
“I think--”  
He paused and Harry could feel him take in a deep breath beside him.  
“--I think......I want that.”  
“Want what?” Louis turned and leaned up on one arm facing Harry. He picked at his nails with an excited energy that was tinged tentatively with caution.  
“Tonight. What that pastor did. I want to do that.”  
Harry looked over at Louis’ open face, eyes shining in the dark, and blinked up at him.  
“I mean,” Louis began to ramble, “when he was talking I just--I could feel, like, this tug--right in my gut, you know? Like,” he reached over and pressed his fingers over Harry’s solar plexus, “right--Here.” Harry breathed out and put his hand over Louis’ and pressed down, nodding.  
“Yeah. Me too”  
“You felt that too? God. I just--” Louis flopped back down next to Harry and put his hands through his hair as he let his sentence hang unfinished and heavy in the silent air. Harry was the next to speak, tentative and hushed, unsure but secure in the safety of the moment.  
“Lou...I think I..........I mean........ I _really_ liked that.”  
Louis hummed next to him. “Yeah?”  
Harry breathed out. “Yeah. When we were sitting there, when the pastor was talking, I........I got hard. Like, so, so hard. That’s never happened to me in church before.”  
Harry worried his lip with his fingers and Louis raised up on his side again to look down at Harry, his eyes still shining, the edges of his pupils even darker than before. He looked simultaneously overwhelmed and possessed as he stroked Harry’s hair from his face with a quiet, “Oh, babe...”  
He reached out and took Harry’s hand from his mouth, lacing their fingers together as he bent down to capture Harry’s lips in a bruising kiss. When they broke apart, Louis stayed close, sprawling on top of Harry and starting to speak in fervent, hushed tones.  
“I thought it was just me. I thought--I just felt so much, you know. It was like my whole body was on edge, like all my hairs were standing up and everything was just--God........This has to mean something, right? This has to be some kind of sign.”  
Harry’s smile had begun to widen more and more as Louis rattled on, and he poked his side as he joked, “If you start taking our simultaneous erections as a sign from God, Lou, we’re gonna be steered in some pretty strange directions”  
Louis huffed out a scandalized laugh and whacked Harry’s shoulder. “You know what I mean! I’m trying to be serious here!  
“I know, Lou. I know.”  
Louis laid his head down on Harry’s sternum and listened to his heart thud beneath his breastbone.  
“Pastor Louis, huh? I like it.”  
“Shush. I’m not gonna be some kind of knob pastor.”  
“You’ll be _my_ knob pastor”  
“Ugh, shut up!”  
“You’re the one who brought knobs into this in the first place!”  
“Shush! I’m trying to tell you I actually want to do this!”  
“Okay, okay. I’m listening. I hear you.”  
They lay there for a while longer, letting the silence stretch as Harry’s fingers carded slowly through Louis’ hair hanging long and loose and soft against his face.  
“I want it too, you know.”  
Louis hummed against Harry’s chest, sleepy and acquiescent.  
“It just feels right, you know? The people, the crowds, everybody coming together. I think--this sounds weird, but--I think this is like what we were meant to do?”  
“Yeah. Yeah, H. Me too.”  
  
  
The house creaked around them and it felt like something was settling. Like things were finally shifting into place.  
  
“Together?”  
“Yeah. Together. Always.” 

________

_____

\--------------------------

_____

_____ _ _ _

__________So that’s how they came to this site on the side of the river, slightly damp and only a little road-weary but on their way somewhere nonetheless. They were making their way slowly across what people were beginning to call the “burned-over district” of New York state, having experienced a few false starts and disappointing turn outs, they had regrouped and started to develop a new strategy to bring people in. They were headed toward a great gathering where many preachers in the area were going to congregate, coming together in one of the largest revivals the region had seen yet. It was that atmosphere that drew them because Louis felt confident that they could harness that energy and use the chaos to their advantage.  
  
And so they soldiered on.  
  
Along their way they passed out flyers, encouraging everyone they met to come join in the gathering. The main selling point for most people, to be frank, was the free food and the community. Gather a large group of people from all over, feed them for free, and tell them they have a chance at eternal salvation? Sure fire success. Turns out Jesus knew his stuff, after all.  
  
It also helped having Harry’s easy disarming smile, dimples popping as he made people feel like he really would care if they didn’t show up, getting their hopes up for a hug or a bite of the pie he swore was the best this side of the Appalachians.  
  
They had started out on this journey originally to chase the thrill of performing. To try and get to the root of how standing in the center of a full meeting room made them feel. Neither of them had any die-hard religious leanings. Louis did not set out to set every sinner straight, and Harry was not looking for salvation under every new church awning. Sure, they each knew their bible verses and could hum a handful of hymns from memory, but they also did plenty of things most priests would condemn them to hell for. So they had resigned themselves to a life outside of the church for years until they came across that first meeting. It was then they knew they could do something with this.  
  
They never did any of it to exploit any of the good townspeople they came across--far from it. Louis liked to think of it more like play-acting. The script was already written, the stage set, and the drama set forth; there was room for invention, there was room for theatrics, and--most importantly--there was room for plain and simple truth, whatever that was.  
  
The way Harry saw it, everyone was just searching for meaning somewhere. So many souls couldn’t all have stumbled into something so false. The power of a full crowd, the charge behind so many voices lifted in song, so many eyes fixed on the same point--there had to be something there. He could feel it in his bones.  
  
So they studied and planned and worked out their course of action in the early days. They learned which places were friendly and which weren’t, they learned how to give people what they wanted and get a bit for themselves in return.  
  
They worked as the perfect team: Harry reeled people in, Louis kept them there long enough to get what they were after. Both of them teamed up to put each of their skill sets into play once they had their goal in sight. Some days it was just a warm bed and a good meal. Other days it was bigger things: fame, recognition, immortality. The world.  
  
Some days it felt like they were holding all that and more in the palms of their hands. Lapping it up easily and drinking it down in one easy gulp. Other days they had to be content with feeling like they weren’t really getting anywhere. The times when muddy roads impeded their progress, humbugs turned them away, or leads they thought were a sure thing turned out to be dead ends.  
  
But this day was different though, because they were actually, really, truly going to get somewhere. 

________

_____

\--------------------------

_____

_____ _ _ _

__________The day finally comes when they arrive where they had set all their hopes: Jefferson County. The seat of what people were beginning to call the Second Great Awakening. People and preachers alike travelled from near and far to witness the revivals in the area, and Louis was bound and determined to make a lasting impact.  
  
The meeting which Louis was set to preach for was to take place in a clearing a short walk from the outskirts of town. Benches had been set up under a haphazard tent provided by the local church people and to the side, long tables slowly filled with food offered by the women who have come from around the whole county to hopefully witness the miraculous truths they had heard so much about. Louis paced back and forth behind the tree line beyond the stage, muttering to himself and going over his notes. Harry mingled about around the entrance to the clearing, directing people to seats, steering the way to the food tables, and making sure everybody got settled. He handed out pamphlets and flirted with every widow, every mother, every man that entered the gathering place. He wanted so badly for this to go well, wanted to finally see success after all this time. As the clearing filled, all of the seats became occupied and there were people standing anywhere there was room, filling the air with the buzz of excited chatter and anticipatory energy.  
  
There was a flicker of motion near the stage and a hush came over the crowd like a wave as Louis’ voice began to sing from behind the trees. After the first verse Harry joined in, their two voices combining to fill the clearing with the powerful music of an old spiritual. Soon, other voices were lifted up in song from the pews, and soon most of the crowd had joined in, the air vibrating with the spirit and the music and what some would call the Holy Ghost. As the last verse came to a close, Louis stepped out onto the stage. The voices slowly died down, and Louis stood in the center of the wooden planks, head bowed and hands clasped in front of him.  
  
At first glance, it was hard to believe he was the one to have started what had become such a great wave of song. His small frame seemed dwarfed by the setting: the wide boards of the stage beneath him, the huge sweeping swath of canvas above him, and the swollen crowd in front of him--all came to a point at this young man with short limbs and neat hair. And then he opened his mouth. 

______“Welcome, my brothers and sisters, welcome! What a day to greet the Lord!”_ _ _ _ _ _

______\--And just like that, everything shifted. His loud voice projected and boomed large enough to fill three clearings, let alone one. His stature seemed to increase, his whole body seemed to glow and his movements made the stage seem, if anything, too small to contain him. If before anyone had wondered how he could fill all the empty space between his head and the canvas top of the tent, now they were wondering if he might in fact burst through. He forged on, calling to the audience, invoking such emotion and response as hadn’t been seen in that region for years. As the people watched him preach, filled to the brim with such passion for God, overflowing with love, they each had the peculiar urge to bear that passion themselves. People found themselves wanting simultaneously to be the cause of such a joy (blasphemy!) and to find such a joy to feel as their own. He was at once as loud as God’s own voice, and as silent as sin. He was sharp and soft. He was crescendo and he was declension. He led them up so many peaks as he spoke, only to bring them back down in the hush of his gradual descent._ _ _ _ _ _

______If Harry thought he was in love with Louis before, it was only a half-love. This, seeing him like this--on fire and filled with passion and shining so, so bright--it was like he was truly seeing him for the first time. Louis belonged there, in front of a crowd of people, capturing their attention and captivating them with whatever his pores were pouring out from this previously untapped well he seemed to be drawing on. His eyes shone and his hands waved around and his hair flew about as he seemed to grow larger in front of Harry’s eyes. More._ _ _ _ _ _

______This was it, this is what they had been striving for all this time._ _ _ _ _ _

______Harry looked around at the crowd before him, alive and pulsing and hanging on Louis’ every word, and he felt himself grow hard in his pants. He began to imagine all of them--what they were thinking about Louis, how none of them knew what he did with him in private, how some of the people sitting here had probably done even wilder things than that. He thought about how beneath every rapt stare there lay plain want, desire, need--and how Harry could still feel the ache around his hole where Louis had been just last night. It was so much to think about, and only made him squirm harder in his seat. Knowing how many eyes were on him, how many people would know he was hard if he just stood up--set a fire under his skin. Or--or, he thought, how many people would pass by without a second glance? How many kind parishioner’s hands could he shake, how many pleasantries and peace-be-with-you’s could he share, without anyone being any the wiser? He shivered as he felt his cock head press achingly against the front of his trousers, stretched tight over his lap. The single layer of fabric that separated his erection from the eyes of everyone around him felt too thin while at the same time weighing down on him with a distractingly present insistence, never letting him forget what he was covering up. He closed his eyes (in prayer...) and gripped his thighs, willing himself to settle down. But Louis’ voice pierced through everything, loud and clear, and filled with so much passion Harry had to bite his lip to keep from doing something stupid. Just behind him he could hear the mothers he had exchanged pie recipes with, women who had demurred and flirted and given his broad shoulders lingering looks away from the eyes of their husbands. Harry’s brain was filled with the frantic chant of want, want, want fed by the current of power flowing from center stage where Louis was beginning to pace as he called people forward to receive Christ as their Savior in the new order--to be revived in Jesus, to cast off the bonds of the old church and live free and blessed in the light of God._ _ _ _ _ _

______If no one went up, Harry was supposed to offer himself as the first, but as it was he would have to walk forward with a tent in his pants, dick standing at attention in front of more than one hundred people. His cock twitched. Not going down at the thought of that, then._ _ _ _ _ _

__________Louis raised his arms up high and called out to the congregants: “Sinners! Come forth! Be cleansed! Wash yourselves with the light of Christ and the love of the Lord, our Redeemer! Come! Come if you would give yourselves to God! Come now, sisters and brothers! Come now!”  
  
Then there was a beat of silence, two beats of silence, three beats of silence, and every single nerve in Harry’s body is on hyper-drive. Beads of sweat traveled down his neck and Harry’s whole body was on fire as his cock pressed ever harder against his pants. But all at once, just as his legs tensed to get up, two women moved forward from right side of the stage to receive the blessing. Every muscle in his body turned to jelly and he breathed out a shaky sigh of relief as he let himself sink back onto the bench. He wiped the sweat from his brow and looked down at his lap with a small wry smile. As he listened to Louis summon the spirit of Christ to enter the two women, he can’t help but wish that it had been him. Though he felt relieved, there is still no small part of him that wishes with some deep-seated twisted desire that he had been put on display in front of all those people. Louis would have seen him so hard in his pants and known. Everyone would have seen him hard in his pants and known. They would have--god--they would have been able to tell exactly how big he was if they got a good enough look at him. Would they have wanted him? Would they have felt sinful for thinking lustful thoughts about his body, laid out at the front of the stage, spread so beautifully for them to see?  
  
Harry’s flush spread red and hectic down his cheeks and the woman next to him leans over to ask if he’s feeling quite alright. He shifted in his seat and nodded, clasping his hands harder (in prayer...) over his lap. He tried to focus on the pile of cow shit he saw earlier under one of the benches and thinks very hard about disgusting things, willing himself to go down while Louis preached on. 

______It’s not easy._ _ _ _ _ _

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_____ _ _ _

______Afterwards, the people rise and gather together to eat food and watch the children play and gossip about the goings on in the county. Harry finds Louis in the crowd, shining and surrounded by people wishing to speak to him about his message. Louis’ eyes lock on Harry’s and they flash “please” and “thank you” and “look. look. look.” Harry presses a hand warm and large on the small of Louis’ back, steady and reassuring and also asking the questions he can’t say out loud. Louis turns to him and nods with a smile. Harry smiles back and moves one finger along Louis’ spine to say “I love you” and also “I _love_ you.” Harry goes back to mingling and talking up the pies and finding out the local gossip while Louis goes back to talking to the old butcher about the fraught political mire currently sinking the old church._ _ _ _ _ _

__________Harry finds a cheery Irishman by the meat pies and loses track of time joking and laughing fit to split his sides. “You know, I think these things are really only good for the food."  
“I..er....I sort of helped organize this thing?”  
“Oh, sorry mate! No offense intended! Wonderful gathering and all, I just. You know how it is. A lad can’t live off word alone, no matter what those crazy monks say!”  
  
He then proceeded to tell Harry his strategy of how he gets the best serving of each food group laid out on the table before they disappear. Much more scientific an operation than one would expect, apparently.  
“That’s why I love America, mate. Land o plenty an’ all that! Great craic. I got three years of potato famine and I called it quits on the old country, just like that. Unbearable, that.”  
Harry listened with the kind of patience Louis was always baffled at, and nodded along as the blond rattled on. He decided he quite liked the fellow. He’d be a good man to have on your side, Harry supposed.  
“Music’s my real passion, though, I tell ya.”  
“”s’at right?”  
“You bet your arse, mate. Oops, sorry. Haven’t quite given up the whole swearin’ thing for Jesus yet. Anyways. I mean, get me a fiddle, a bit of a tune, and I’m as happy as a robin in June!”  
  
Harry could see it easily. The Irishman seemed fit only for sunshine and bright song, as if he were some child of Pan descended on the gathering to have a good laugh and partake in good food. Harry entertained himself imagining Niall like some sort of musical pixie version of Saint Nicholas, somehow managing to spread good will and cheer around all the potlucks in the tri-state area all in the same afternoon. Magic.  
  
A strikingly handsome thin young man with dark hair and trimmed beard beckoned to Niall from the edge of the trees. “Welp, that’s my signal to wrap it up! Pleasure to meet ya, er....”  
“Harry. Harry Styles.”  
“Harry Styles. Niall Horan at your service. If we ever meet again may it be at just as bountiful a feast...but maybe with a pint or two a piece as well, eh?” Niall ribbed his elbow into Harry’s side and left laughing. Harry liked to think Niall would be the kind of person to always like to leave places laughing. 

______Harry watched Niall leave with the attractive man and turned back to find Louis in the crowd. He was by one of the food tables talking with a ridiculously tall man and a beautiful brown-haired woman who appeared to be his wife. Louis had his flirty smile on, so Harry decided it was time he went over to see what was going on. Not because he was jealous. Just curious. Right._ _ _ _ _ _

__________As Harry approached, Louis turned and smiled at him, beaming back up at the gangly giant of a man talking to him as Harry reached an arm out to clasp Louis’ shoulder in his large hand.  
“Alright?”  
“Oh! Harry! Just in time. I’d like for you to meet Pastor James and his wife, Daisy.”  
The giant (Pastor James, apparently) smiled warmly at Harry, reaching out his hand to shake and saying, “Pleased to meet you, Harry. And please, call me Greg.”  
“Greg _and_ James, huh? Never met a man with two first names before. It’s a pleasure.”  
  
The couple laughed and Louis rolled his eyes as he continued, “Greg and Daisy were just telling me about their lovely farm the next county over. Sounds like they have quite a nice set up over there.” Louis gave Harry a pointed look, signaling that this could be an opportunity to take advantage of.  
“Oh it’s nothing grand. It’s a lot to take care of at times, but with a little help here and there we get by. Thanks be to God.” Daisy’s voice was soft and lyrical and everyone murmured assenting thanks to God as she nodded along. Harry was reminded of wood elves, if wood elves could also be soft and married to preachers as tall as trees.  
  
Greg reached his arm around her sloping shoulders and said with a proud smile, “Daisy actually makes it what it is, really. She used our apples from the orchard for the pies she cleverly cooked up for this gathering, in fact.” Harry smiled back at them and felt a warmth he hadn’t felt in a while. They did seem like truly good people. He didn’t blame Louis for turning on all his charms for them. Especially if they were in the clergy and had a working farm close by.  
  
“God truly has blessed you it seems!”  
Greg nodded and reached in his coat pocket for a pad of paper. “He has indeed. In fact, Louis, Harry, if either of you happen to be in need of a place to stay here’s our address. I’m terrible at drawing, but this will at least give you a vague idea of where our place is. Just ask anyone around how to find the James’ place and they should be able to lead you straight to us!”  
  
Louis accepted the paper as if the thought had never even occurred to him, as if such an act of generosity hadn’t been his goal the whole time they had been talking.  
  
“Oh, honestly, you’re too kind. Thank you so, so much. You really are too generous. If we are ever in the neighborhood we’ll be sure to bring something for you, anything you’d like.”  
  
Greg waved Louis off and smiles kindly, “Just more of that beautiful music we heard today, if you can, I should think. That, and a continuation of our conversation we began to have earlier, definitely.”  
Louis nodded and clasped his hands in his own. “Without a doubt. God willing.”  
  
They bid them farewell and watched them leave with the settled feeling of knowing they would meet again before long. 

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__________Finally, finally the clearing starts to empty of the last of the people gathered there as dusk begins to fall. The quiet that settles between the trees is like the forest around them exhaling in relief. After a day full of movement and noise, everything is still once more.  
Peace.  
Louis sits with his legs hanging off the stage and watches Harry walk through the debris between the benches toward him with a small, private smile. Harry finally reaches him, standing between his legs with his hands on his thighs, and leans his forehead forward with closed eyes to rest against Louis’. They breathe together and open their eyes, drinking in the silence until Louis whispers, “We did it.”  
Harry’s mouth splits into a wide smile.  
“We did it.”  
“Together.”  
“Yeah, Together.” 

______They fall over each other as they flop back onto the stage and their crazed cackles could probably be heard for miles._ _ _ _ _ _

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__________Later that night, as they lay side by side in the pitch dark, legs tangled and fingers entwined together, Harry trails his other hand lightly up Louis’ arm and cautiously whispers, “Louis?”  
“Yeah, H?”  
“You were really beautiful up there today.”  
Louis reaches over and kisses Harry soft but insistent, fingers carding through his hair and holding him in place.  
“Like. Really amazing. I don’t--I don’t know how to say it--”  
Louis shushed him with another kiss, smoothing over the lines on his face with his gentle thumb. “It’s ok babe. You don’t have to say.”  
“How did it feel?”  
Louis laid back and stared up and the ceiling as his thumb rubbed small circles into the back of Harry’s hand. Neither of them said anything as they listened to the beats of their breath fill the silent air. “It felt--” Louis stopped and turned to look at Harry.  
“It felt like my whole body was on fire. It felt like I was vibrating so quickly my skin could have fallen off. But also--” he stopped and frowned in consideration. “Also it felt like everything had this strange sort of focus. Like I couldn’t see the end of the road, but every stepping stone right in front of me was the clearest I had ever seen anything. It sort of--” he cut himself off and bit his lip, looking over at Harry sheepishly. Harry rubbed his arm encouragingly. “Ok don’t laugh. I don’t know why it made me think of this, but....like...........it sort of felt like sex. With you. Like when you’re inside of me and I--” he cut off with an oomph as Harry launched himself over him to connect their lips in a clumsy but nevertheless enthusiastic kiss. “God--Lou--you---you have no idea--I--” they rolled around and Harry ended up on his back with Louis kissing and nipping down his neck. “What, babe?”  
“I just--I was so hard while you were preaching. I was so so hard and I couldn’t make it go away and I just kept thinking about everyone and you up there and I just--” Harry was breathing hard and they had barely even done anything. Louis’ hands traveled quickly up and down his heaving torso and rubbed over his already tenting crotch.  
“Yeah? Yeah? Did you think people might see? Did you wonder what they would say if they saw you being so sinful under the watchful eyes of God? Hmm?”  
Harry writhed under Louis’ hands with a loud whine high in his throat.  
“Kept--ah--kept thinking about your cock--inside me--how I could--how I could still feel where you had stretched me last night and--ah--”  
“Jesus.”  
“Almost had to go up in front of everybody like that, w-walk in front with--almost had to--”  
Harry cut himself off on a gasp as Louis rubbed up against him at just the right angle so he could feel how hard Louis was too.  
“It’s ok baby, it’s ok. You would have been so good for me, I bet. Would have come up even if you were so turned on you could barely walk, hmm?”  
Harry breathes out harshly as their clothed cocks rub against each other faster now as they start to build rhythm.  
“W-Wanted to--god. Wanted to, Lou. Wanted--”  
“You wanted everyone to see you like that? Wanted to be so hard for me in front of everyone in that clearing, Harry? Is that it?”  
Harry whined into his nod as he buried his face in the crook of Louis’ neck to hide the fierce blush that had worked its way up his cheeks. “So hard for you.”  
“So good. So good. God--I bet--ah--you’d love it if I made you come in your pants up there in front of everyone, wouldn’t you?” Harry’s body shuddered and he made a choked off noise low in his throat as Louis rutted harder against him. “Make such a--such a mess of yourself--so pretty--god--be so beautiful--so wet in your pants--” Harry cried out as he did just that, as he came in his pants underneath Louis pressing hard above him. He bit into the crook of Louis’ shoulder and Louis followed shortly after, laughing in disbelief together after they slowly came to. 

___________“Well.”_  
“Well...”  
“Well that was something, wasn’t it.”  
Harry smiled bashfully into Louis’ shoulder and nipped softly at his sleeve. “We didn’t even take any of our clothes off.” They laughed softly and Louis scrubbed a hand over his face before reaching down to rid them both of their soiled underthings. He tossed them to the side and grabbed a rag to clean them off.  
“There. Good as new.” and with a flop, he laid back down next to Harry once more.  
Just before they drifted off into sleep, Harry mumbled out “Lou?”  
“Mmm.”  
“I really liked that.”  
“Me too, curly.”  
“If..........” Harry’s slow tempo was doing nothing to make Louis stay awake, so he kicked Harry’s shin to keep him going.  
“Just. If you wanted to do that. I would do that.”  
Louis opened his eyes then to look over at Harry properly. The dim light showed that color had risen in his cheeks and he was worrying his lip between his teeth.  
“You mean you’d like to come in your pants for me in front of a whole congregation of people in the middle of a meeting?”  
Harry looked over at Louis and nodded vehemently.  
Louis closed his eyes and lay back. Harry was so much.  
“So........do you.......?”  
“Yes, Harold. I want to. Very much.”  
“Oh.......I didn’t think you’d want to do it in front of that many people.....”  
Louis’ heart clenched despite himself and his stomach swooped. He kept his eyes closed though, smiled serenely and said,  
“Mmm...kinda would.”  
Harry laughed and kicked at Louis’ ankles under the blankets.  
“We’ll have to wait for the right kind of meeting. I’ll let you know when. We’ll have some sort of signal, ok?” Harry nodded.  
“And if you ever want me to stop, just say our word. The one we use for everything else, ok?”  
“Barrister. Ok. You too, yeah?”  
“Yeah.”  
“So we’re gonna actually do this then?”  
“You bet your sinful little bottom.”  
Harry smiled widely into the dark. “Okay.”  
Louis closed his eyes and breathed out, so happy it scared him.  
“Okay.” 

______And just like that they added another item on their unwritten agenda._ _ _ _ _ _

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_____ _ _ _

______Unfortunately, their secret agenda was much easier planned than done. The opportunity for acting out their idea didn’t actually come until weeks later during a gathering a few counties over._ _ _ _ _ _

______The meeting they were holding was set to happen on one of the hottest days in August, in smaller quarters than the usual gatherings took place in. The structure they were to hold it in was originally built by Quakers, so it was round with a large empty space in the middle designed for a much calmer kind of meeting than they were about to have. The number of people that could fit inside was unfortunately fewer than Louis would have like to preach to, but he would take what he could get. Many more than the recommended maximum of fifty bodies crammed inside the sweaty room, and Louis stood in the center on two chairs pulled together to make an impromptu stage. The energy in the room was thick and restless, heavy with heat and sticky with humidity. Louis would have to work extra hard to keep them engaged. Just before people had begun to arrive, Louis--twitchy and fidgety with an excess of kinetic energy--pulled Harry aside and said low into his ear, “Gonna come for me today, yeah? Gonna make a mess of yourself?” Harry had looked back with wide eyes and dark pupils, mouth salivating involuntarily. “If you want me to stop, just give me the signal, ok?” Harry nodded dumbly and Louis was off again, pacing and bouncing around with his notes flying._ _ _ _ _ _

______It was all so much more than anyone could be expected to handle sometimes._ _ _ _ _ _

______As more and more people filled the space, Harry felt his veins thrum with excitement, his dick throbbing and beginning to chub despite nothing really having happened yet. Just greeting everybody and standing so close to everyone made him realize how real this was. He was going to be hard right in the middle of all these bodies pressing in around him. Some of them would know. Some of them would see--would feel him even. His clothes itched around him and he already longed to take his shirt off. He imagined what it would feel like to have that many hands reaching out to feel his hot skin and he shivered._ _ _ _ _ _

______This was going to be something else._ _ _ _ _ _

______They began in their usual way: Louis raised his voice in the between the bodies and sang the beginning of song, standing among the crowd, while Harry followed until more and more voices joined in to fill the whole room with the vibrations of music, the power of song almost making Harry believe in something more every time. Then Louis stood up on the chairs and began to engage the crowd as he relayed his message._ _ _ _ _ _

______Louis was more lively than usual, waving about and nearly falling over a couple of times, making Harry nervous about the actual stability of the two chairs. Louis seemed to sense this and did something he hadn’t done up to that point yet--he hopped off the chairs and began walking through the crowd, moving amongst them with waving limbs and booming voice, touching the people he passed and making the crowd come alive in a way Harry had never seen happen before. People were swaying and calling out, raising their hands in the air as Louis’ voice boomed louder, calling on the people to give themselves up to God, to feel the energy that flowed through the rooms, through their bodies, through their souls, and to lift all of that up to Heaven._ _ _ _ _ _

______His small frame circled around the room further, as he shouted excitedly:_ _ _ _ _ _

______“We are the hands of the Lord. The spirit that moved in him also moves in us. Are you so moved by the spirit that your body shakes with it?!? Are you so moved by the spirit that your earthly body sways with the quaking of your soul?!? Brothers and sisters--feel the spirit! Feel the impulse to move in the ways of the lord! The breath! The Life! The spirit of the lord our father here among us! Let it pull you towards the light! Let it pull you towards the love! Let go and let the lord guide you! Take hands!”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Everyone reached out and hands grasped hands and arms grasped arms and Harry was completely enveloped. His dick was completely hard by now and with his hands occupied there was no way he could hide it anymore. His trousers tented out with the outline of his cock, and bodies pressed against him from every side, sweating and moaning and swaying with the force of Louis’ words._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Our hands move as his hands once did. Our arms circle as his arms did before they were nailed to the cross! Repent sinners! Open yourselves to be god’s holy instruments the way Jesus Christ our Savior did for us before. Repent and be saved again and again from the temptations of evil! Follow the righteous path and let yourselves be guided by the holy spirit--can you feel it!?! Can you feel it good people!?!”_ _ _ _ _ _

______The people called back to him, responding in Hallelujahs and Amens as Louis circled closer and closer to where Harry was standing. He didn’t look at him, but just as Harry was aware of Louis’ motions, Louis was equally as aware of his, constantly keeping him in his periphery as he laid hands on the people in his path that were offering themselves to God, asking for salvation. All these good, Christian people, who were oblivious (or not) to what Harry was on the verge of doing. It made Harry’s head feel foggy as he thought about getting away with coming in his pants, of how he’d have to sit with a wet spot on his front afterwards, how he’d have to look in the eyes of all the well-meaning women who wanted his opinion on their pies. He felt like he was pulling some huge prank on everybody and all at once he remembered that Louis--Louis, the head of this whole meeting--was in on all of it. That he’s the one who was turning all the gears. Harry felt the thrill of it all shoot down his spine as his brain whispered a rush of disconnected _special special special secret special secret secret secret_ and he itched to run his hands down his own torso, to rub over his nipples that were pulling at the sweat-soaked fabric of his shirt.  
  
He’s here, this is real, and people must see what a state he’s in. But nobody actually knows. Nobody makes any move to stop it. Harry bites his lip and remembers to breathe. _ _ _ _ _ _

______“Brothers and Sisters, I tell you now--God is here among us! God is Majesty! God is Grace! God is everything holy that moves within your veins! Feel the pulse of his spirit move within you! Do not fight the course of his will! Give yourselves up to God! Wholly! Fully! Let go and let him in!”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Harry is so, so hard now, and his cheeks are flushed with much more than the heat. He can feel all his blood rushing with more urgency as he senses the climax of Louis’ speech approaching. Sweat covers Louis’ brow and soaks his loose white shirt, his skin showing through the fabric where it clings to him obscenely; his muscles moving, skin stretching. Harry’s curls are in a hectic halo around his head by now and his eyes are glassy as he looks up and meets Louis’ piercing blue gaze--always seemingly just on the verge of igniting, starting a fire not even Harry would know how to put out. He imagines how hot his skin must feel. How much potential energy is vibrating just underneath the surface of him. Harry shivers._ _ _ _ _ _

______“God is good. God is grace.”_ _ _ _ _ _

_____Louis moves through the swaying crowd, holding them in his hands, parting them like some strange Moses--at once the walls of water and the pillar of fire: surging, spraying, scorching all at once._ _ _ _ _

______“God is here. God is watching. Do not be fooled into the lazy thinking that you are free under the absent eye of a dormant god! Do not be led astray by idle fool’s talk! God exists in every drop of sweat that drips from your sinner’s skin. God exists in every attempt your body makes to purify itself. Listen! Learn! Let go!”_ _ _ _ _ _

__________Harry feels sweat trickle down his back and thinks of Louis’ tongue, of tongues of flame, of sweat and salt and seawater. Louis moves closer still, laying hands on the trembling bodies in his path, until he gets to Harry, moving around him with an unconscious ease. Harry’s body gravitates towards him as Louis comes up behind him, laying hands on his hips, briefly on his rock hard erection straining his pants, making Harry’s eyes roll shut as he’s overwhelmed. Louis turns him around and embraces him as though cleansing him, but he keeps one hand twisted in his hair how Harry likes, and says loudly to the crowd (but also to Harry. Mostly, above all, always, to Harry)--  
  
“Come now! Come now and let the lord move through you!”  
  
\--and Harry shuts his eyes comes in his pants with a muffled groan as he ruts against Louis’ thigh, shaking in what would seem to be religious ecstasy. His cheeks are flushed and his lips bloom slick and puffy from biting them. He whines as he feels the hot wetness spread in his britches--ashamed and purified, and so, so messy. Standing in the middle of the crush of church people, women praising god, men crying in devotion. Harry sinks to his knees in front of Louis and rasps out “Blessed be the Lord” and Louis kisses his forehead in blessing, saying “Blessed be the sheep who come when the shepherd calls them! Blessed be the flock who is not led astray!” and as he turns to continue on in his sermon, Harry can see the unmistakable bulge in his pants as he walks away. Harry’s mouth waters and he thinks about what it would be like to suck Louis off in front of the whole congregation, taking him down to the root while they watched and swayed and said ‘amen!’ as Louis continued preaching. Calling out to his flock as he fucked Harry’s face. Even now, even after what they just did, he wants it so badly that he can feel his skin itch with it. 

______Louis’ voice calls out, “Friends, believe the good news! God is good! God is Grace! God moves in you, and you too are good! Repent and act in goodness and grace throughout the world, throughout all of the lord’s given days! Praise God! Praise God in the highest! Go now! And preach the good news!”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Everyone falls all over themselves, some weeping, some prostrating themselves, some glowing in silence and spiritual awakening. The tent slowly empties, people leaving little by little until they have finally said goodbye to the very last hangers-on and Louis goes to Harry, anchoring him with steady hand to his lower back and his hard length pressing through his trousers into Harry’s leg._ _ _ _ _ _

______He looks around, checking for any final signs of people milling around, and leans in to settle a soft kiss to Harry’s lips that contrasts with the intensity of everything that had come before. “You did so well, babe. So good.” His hand rubs soft circles around Harry’s back and they smile at each other before Harry looks down at Louis’ erection between them with a raised brow and a smirk._ _ _ _ _ _

______Louis kisses his dimple and pats him on the bum twice before declaring, “Time to go home.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______It had been a long time since home meant any stable structure, but Harry nodded with a happy hum, and they set off together to settle down in whatever little corner of the earth they had carved out as their own for these few nights._ _ _ _ _ _

______There were urgent things that needed seeing to, after all._ _ _ _ _ _

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______After that, they had a series of successful gatherings one after the other. Then, in the middle of August they spent the two weeks after one successful meeting at the country house of an old widow, making the most of her generosity while they offered her their services in helping around the grounds as needed._ _ _ _ _ _

_____On this particular day she had gone into town to visit with friends, leaving them alone for the entire afternoon. So naturally they were spread out in the middle of the living room, sprawled on top of a mattress Louis had dragged directly into the sunny patch on the floor. They were halfway to naked and well more than halfway into the process of becoming thoroughly debauched._ _ _ _ _

__________Louis had been teasing Harry for the better part of an hour, working him up to a nice frantic hardness so that the front of his trousers were wet and tented obscenely and his soft whines became less and less voluntary. He had tied his wrists together with a bit of cloth Harry used to tie his hair back, so Louis was free to touch and tease him as his muscles strained and his teeth worried his lip redder by the minute. Harry had begun to whine in earnest as his teeth bit into his bottom lip hard, making Louis look down at him with soft eyes and a sharp flash of teeth.  
  
“Tsk, tsk. We can’t have you worrying your beautiful lips off now can we, darling?”  
  
Harry released his lip from between his teeth with a shaky sigh and shook his head slowly. Louis smiled as he reached up and untied Harry’s straining wrists, soothing the red skin with his hands, stroking down his arms to let him know what a good job he was doing, what a good boy he was being.  
  
Louis took the cloth in his hands and brought it slowly around to Harry’s face. Leaning in close he said lowly in Harry’s ear, “Know what we’re gonna do with this, babe? Know what we do for boys who can’t keep quiet?” Harry let out a whine from high in his throat. “Yes. I think you know.” Louis straightened up and let his thumb run rough over Harry’s spit-slick bottom lip, catching the pad of his fingerprint on his teeth, pushing in further to make Harry’s eyes close in gratitude as he sucked around it. “There we are. Open up now, there’s a good lad.” Harry’s huge red mouth opened and Louis replaced his finger with the bunched up cloth from before, filling his mouth and muffling any noises that tried to escape. Louis stroked back his already slightly sweaty hair as he settled back to admire his handiwork.  
  
“Look so good like this, love”  
  
Harry preened under his attention and his body settled back, face showing a calm belied by his tensed muscles twitching just under sweaty skin. Louis smiled down at the effects of his actions and moved down Harry’s body, letting his hands continue teasing where he had left off before. It wasn’t often they got to play like this, free to do whatever they wanted in the comfort of a real home. Louis planned to savor it. 

__________He fingered the band of Harry’s trousers, stained with the wetness of his arousal and bunched up where Louis had rutted against him earlier. “Tsk, so messy. Best take these off then, don’t you think?” Louis looked up with a wicked tilt to his eyebrow and proceeded to shuck the fabric from Harry’s legs, leaving him naked and panting, his hard cock hitting his tensed stomach with a dull slap. “Oh look at that.” Louis breathed out a sigh of want he would have denied if you asked him. “You’re so hard, baby.” He came back up Harry’s body hands first, letting his fingertips run up his legs, digging in to the thickest parts of his thighs, alternately squeezing hard and scratching barely there fingertips through the slight hairs on his softest skin.  
  
Harry’s chest heaved with heavy breaths as he tried so hard to keep still, his cock jumping with every scrape of Louis’ nails against the inside of his shaking thighs. As Louis positioned himself right over Harry’s achingly hard cock he looked up from his lap to his face and breathed out so the hot air of his words hit his hardness, “You want this so badly don’t you, H?” before taking the flat of his tongue and licking up the ridge of his dick, making Harry let out a muffled sob from behind the cloth. “Mmm. Don’t think it’s that time yet.” Harry whined and Louis gave him a stern look as he got up from straddling him to find the jar of flaxseed oil he had brought down from his bag. He reached over the floor and finally found it where it had rolled under the couch. He quickly took off his clothes on his way back over to the mattress where Harry was sprawled out, waiting patiently. They had found out about the wonderful uses of flaxseed oil unintentionally one day when Louis’ mum had boiled a large pot of it to use to aid her patients’ pelvic examinations and left it out on the stove. It was easy enough to make and they always made sure to have some on hand for moments like these. Finally naked, lube in hand, dick bobbing free, Louis raised up to straddle Harry’s chest once again. Harry rocked his hips up impatiently and Louis shook his head indulgently. “Good things come to those who wait, Harold.”  
  
Louis caught Harry’s responding eye roll as he reached down to unscrew the lid to the jar, and scoffed.  
  
“Well. I was going to let you open me up, but if you’re gonna have that kind of attitude, I think you might as well just watch.”  
  
Harry groaned behind his gag and Louis just smirked as he turned himself around and lifted his ass in the air so Harry was face to ass with his hole. He arched his back and dipped his fingers into the jar, coating them with lube and lifting them back to circle around his hole. Harry groaned as Louis took his time coating his rim with wetness. He circled his hole slowly, alternating soft strokes and firm presses, savoring the contrast between the light and hard sensations Harry knew he loved so much.  
  
One of Harry’s favorite things of all time was when Louis would sit on his face and let him lick him out. He loved being so enveloped by Louis, loved how Louis would fall apart above him, loved how wet he got, covered in spit and slick and each other. So having Louis so close, but just far enough away from him like this was torture. His jaw ached and his saliva glands gave sympathetic pangs as his tongue worked against the gag in futility. Louis sighed in pleasure. Harry whimpered.  
  
Louis worked his first finger in and was starting to move faster because, as Harry knew, once he started it was hard for Louis to stop. He quickly worked a second, and then a third finger in, going so much faster than Harry would have if it had been his hands. He dug his nails harder into the mattress to keep himself from moving as Louis worked his fingers in and out in earnest, breath coming in soft gasps and pants where his head hung down, gusting little puffs of air over Harry’s straining dick on every exhale. Harry makes a needy noise in the back of his throat and Louis looks over his shoulder, hair falling into his face as he smiles at Harry’s desperate face.  
“You think you’re ready to be good now? Hmm? Yeah ok. I think you’ve waited long enough.”  
  
With that, Louis extricates his fingers and turns back around to face Harry. He strokes down Harry’s face with his clean hand, wiping the sweaty curls from his forehead and kissing his stretched cheeks softly. “There we go. Let’s take this out now, shall we? Wanna use your mouth for other things now.” Gingerly, with careful fingers, Louis takes the cloth out from Harry’s widened mouth, letting him lick his lips and work his jaw before reaching down and capturing his lips in his own for their first deep kiss since they got started.  
  
Although Louis loved to tease more than almost anything, loved working Harry up and getting him wound so tightly he could snap at a single touch--even though he loved that part of being with Harry, it was these moments of connection in the middle of everything, the anchoring touches, the looks, the kisses, to remind him of just how tied together they really are.  
  
They break apart and Louis looks at Harry’s shining eyes and down to his shining lips, and decides his next move before Harry has time to blink. Louis straightens up and sits so that his dick is level with Harry’s mouth. Then he reaches back into the jar and gets his hand coated with lube once again. He looks down at Harry’s face, so open and trusting, and looks back down at him with more love and affection than should maybe be on the face of someone who is lightly tapping his cock head against his partner’s lips, “Open up, babe.”  
  
Harry opens his mouth and Louis feeds him the tip of his dick, going slowly and hissing at how good and warm and wet Harry’s mouth feels around him. Harry takes it eagerly, sucking him down while his tongue laves the underside of his shaft, working hard in contrast to all the time his mouth had been unoccupied. While Harry has his attention elsewhere, Louis reaches behind him to take Harry’s dick firmly in his lube-covered hand, causing Harry to cry out around Louis’ dick. Louis shushes him, giving him a few firm strokes to get him good and slick. Harry looks up at Louis with pleading eyes, and Louis loses his rhythm for a bit, panting as Harry whines with a full mouth again. Louis shakes his head, trying to get ahold of himself as he starts to speak almost incapable of stopping the stream of words from leaving his lips. 

______ _ _ _ _ ______“What would people do if they saw me like this, Harry? What would they do if they heard you begging for it, whining so pretty, so desperate for me? Do you think they’d be shocked?”  
  
Louis thrusts into Harry’s mouth as he groans around him. “God--I bet they wouldn’t know what to do at first. Bet they’d come in and see you with your mouth full, your cock out, so hard for me, and they wouldn’t even know what to say. They’d be so struck by sinful thoughts....bet they’d get so--ah---so hot seeing you like this--Mmph--Seeing you flushed and wanting. Don’t know who wouldn’t--oh--god---”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Louis cut himself off and tried to get his breathing back to normal as he withdrew his dick from Harry’s mouth. As soon as Harry can speak again he starts a steady stream of low pleading._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Please Louis. Please please please--”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Louis moves down Harry’s body, reaching behind himself to give one last precursive fingering, making sure he’s slick enough as he chants right back at Harry, “That’s my good boy. So good. So polite. There you are. That’s my boy.”_ _ _ _ _ _

__________Louis removes his fingers and takes Harry in his hand, positioning him right at his entrance before looking up and locking eyes with him, waiting with held breath. Harry gives him a small, quick nod and Louis lowers himself onto Harry slowly, torturously, loving the feeling of being stretched like this, savoring how big he always feels and pushing past the feeling of too much that never seems to go away no matter how much they do this.  
  
Louis strokes his hands down Harry’s sweating chest, letting his fingers catch on his tensing abs, giving him soft touches in reward for being so strong for him.  
“Fuck. Fuck. You feel so good baby. Doing so well for me.”  
Louis sits still once he is full to the hilt, getting adjusted and used to the fullness that he can almost feel through his whole body. Finally he lifts up and sinks down again, punching a low groan out of Harry as he finds his rhythm.  
“Oh god. Oh. Yes yes yes...”  
Louis rides him with purpose, bouncing his ass and grinding down so Harry is angled to hit his prostate on every downward thrust. Harry’s eyes have gone foggy and he stares up at Louis with his mouth open in gaping silence, struck by Louis’ body above him, never more beautiful than in these moments. As he speeds up his ministrations, Louis starts to breathe heavier, letting out small gasps that all signal to Harry the first of Louis’ strings being cut, the prelude to this beautiful boy losing it on his dick.  
“Harry. Harry Harry Harry Harry--”  
  
Louis leans forward, sagging onto Harry’s chest and letting him take over and fuck up into him harder.  
  
“Harry --oh god-- Harry fuck me please please need you to fuck me Harry come on--”  
Louis whines into Harry’s neck, grazing his teeth along his throat as he loses it, letting his last semblance of control drop as he turns boneless and needy against Harry’s sweat-soaked torso. Harry lets his strong arms come up from where they’d been clasped above him, and flips Louis over in one swift motion. Louis’ breath gets caught in his throat and he stares up at Harry looming over him, breathless, as he turns himself over onto his stomach, knees digging into the mattress as he raises his ass into the air, shamelessly, wordlessly presenting himself with a pleading look over his shoulder at Harry--he doesn’t want to feel this empty for as long as he can help it. Harry lets out a low exhale, thumbing over Louis’ slick entrance, causing a shiver to travel from the base of Louis’ spine all the way up his trembling back. He murmurs a hoarse “Got you. ‘ve got you Lou” while his broad hand comes up to rest just below the dimples in Louis’ lower back, applying a steady reassuring pressure that has Louis slumping forward and sighing into a whine as Harry finally pushes back in--thank god. As Harry finds his rhythm, Louis fists his hands in the sheets, finding purchase for the punishing thrusts he knows--he prays--are coming.  
  
Louis is good at being commanding. He is good at holding people--holding whole towns of people--in his sway. Even when Harry takes him all the way into his mouth, even when he’s cock-deep into Harry’s ass, even then--he can control himself enough to be some semblance of quiet. But like this--like this Louis can’t hold anything in. So he holds onto whatever he can. He clutches at the mattress, at Harry’s body, at his own gasping throat. Harry lives for the noises Louis can’t help but make when he gets fucked. He’s loud in a way Harry knows he can’t control, and that more than anything is what makes him lose it. When Louis starts shoving his fingers into his own mouth to keep quiet, when he pushes his face into the blankets to muffle his own moans, and--once--when he had gasped out “Harry! need you...” and guided Harry’s hand to his throat, pressing against his throat just enough to feel Louis’ frantic pulse throb, to see how Louis’ eyes widened when he came all over himself with a hoarse shout.  
  
So Harry knows. He knows that Louis loves to fly apart. But he also knows that what Louis loves even more than flying apart is being held together so tightly that the pieces of himself can’t fling too far out of reach.  
  
Louis’ fists grip the sheets, and Harry’s hands move to grip Louis’ hips tighter as he starts pounding into him enough to make his whole body shake and his moans sound just this side of uncontrollable. Harry watches Louis’ ass ripple with each impact of their bodies coming together, getting closer and closer as he lets one hand travel up Louis’ flexing, sweat-covered back, keeping the other splayed over his hip, pinning him to the mattress. Louis clenches hard around him and Harry gasps, “Close, Lou”  
“Yeah. Yeah me too, keep going. Just like that--”  
  
Harry reaches around and takes Louis in his hand, making him moan into the mattress. He can feel Louis start to shake so he bites into his shoulder and moves his hand holding his hip to press against his lower stomach. He presses down hard enough to be able to feel where he’s slightly distended from having Harry inside him, and Louis seizes up as he comes Hard over Harry’s hand between him and the mattress. Harry bites hard at Louis’ shoulder and starts to come as soon as he feels Louis clenches around him, letting go after having been so wound up for so long. Harry slumps forward and they both sigh shaky breaths as their breathing tries to return to normal while they come down.  
  
Harry moves to pull out and get up from where he’s crushing Louis under him, but Louis reaches back a hand and keeps him there.  
“Stay. Just for a bit.”  
Harry smiles into Louis’ shoulder blades and presses a kiss to the base of his neck.  
“Okay.” 

______They fall asleep stuck together and it takes a very patient Harry to help wash a very disgruntled Louis later on. Luckily they get washed and put everything away before their hostess returns, never any the wiser._ _ _ _ _ _

______It was a day of private pleasure and easy love._ _ _ _ _ _

______Thanks be to God._ _ _ _ _ _

________

_____

\--------------------------

_____

_____ _ _ _

______The thing about preaching for revivalist meetings was that there’s only so much that happen within a single period of time in the same area. Which is why sometimes when they didn’t have a group of people gathered they could go to, they ended up gathering the people to them instead._ _ _ _ _ _

__________On one particular lazy, late-August day, Harry and Louis lounged on the edge of a lake where people had begun to congregate to try and escape the oppressive heat. Harry had already taken off his shirt and drawn several pairs of straying eyes towards them with his body. His legs were spread and bent at the knee, letting the material of his thin white linen pants fall obscenely low, exposing his upper thighs with an ease Harry had never had to practice or perfect. His body was born for temptation. His every skin cell shouted it, the curls poking out from under his hat mocked it, and his easy smile seemed to always be asking “who, me?”  
  
Louis looked out over the lake and eyed the flat rock not too far out in the water. A perfect stage. He just had to draw the people out to him somehow.  
  
He looked back at Harry and nudged his shoulder. “Hey. Hey, H.”  
“Hmmm”  
“I’ll race you out to that rock out there.”  
Harry tipped up the brim of his hat and squinted out to where Louis was pointing.  
“Nah.”  
Harry shook his head and took his hat off as he started to slowly stretch out his long limbs, not caring that at least five people had stopped in their tracks to watch him. Louis huffed a disappointed scoff and crossed his arms in a pout as Harry ambled over to dunk his toes slowly into the edge of the water, looking like he was in no hurry to get anywhere.  
  
He looked back over his shoulder at Louis and said with a wicked smile, “I’m not gonna race you out there, Lou” he paused and his smile spread even wider as his cover broke and he nearly shouted in his excitement, “I’m gonna beat you! Haha!” and just like that bounded clumsily into the lake all at once, splashing about as he tried to get as much of a head start as he could.  
  
Louis squawked and scrambled to get up and chase him into the water, determined to get ahead of him even though Harry had a good lead on him already.  
  
They splashed around like fools, reaching the rock at the same time, even though Louis insisted he had won fair and square. Harry protested the use of illegal tickling around the mid-way mark, but Louis refuted his claim on the grounds that all laws were nullified the minute Harry had cheated to begin with. They declared a truce and sprawled out on their backs on the wide, flat rock. Louis was still in his clothes, now almost completely transparent, because he hadn’t thought to take anything off in his rush for victory. Beside him, Harry began to hum. Slowly, Louis sat up and joined in, eventually singing out the words in harmony to Harry’s bass. People began to turn towards them, paying them more attention now as their singing carried over the water and made people crane their necks to find the source. The most adventurous people swam out so they could be nearer to them, to better hear how their voices joined together and to possibly find out why.  
  
In the quiet between the end of the first song and the beginning of the next, Louis looked over to Harry and met his gaze before saying in a charged, low voice,  
“Do you trust me?”  
“Always.”  
Louis took a deep breath and looked out over the people assembled on the beach and in the water, eyes narrowing and ideas forming in his head as he spoke with a level excitement.  
  
“Well, if we're gonna get our feet wet, we might as well go all in.”  
  
Harry smiled widely and subtly took Louis’ hand in his.  
  
  
“Together?”  
Louis looked down at their hands, back up at Harry’s face, and then out at the crowd once more.  
“Yeah, together.”  
  


______With a splash, they plunged into the water, wading out to cleanse and be cleansed and to keep going forward in their adventure._ _ _ _ _ _

______Under the water, their fingers stayed linked together._ _ _ _ _ _

 

 

 

.

**Author's Note:**

> This is not their complete story, so look for more to come soon! 
> 
> Things to look forward to in Part Two: a baptism scene, Harry and Louis traveling down the Erie Canal and staying with Greg James and Daisy for the winter, and a lot more smut. 
> 
> So stay tuned for that! :)
> 
> I did do Real and Actual research for this, so if you want any notes on stuff or expanded explanations of things come talk to me on [tumblr](1demise.tumblr.com) and also tell me what you thought!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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